Rotary Club of Hong Kong South Meeting Report

resident Gary welcomed Rotarians and guests to our regular luncheon meeting.

Fellowship Chairman Bernie, too much of Bernie lately, introduced the following Rotarians:

Rtn. Alex Ling, Rotary Club of HKIE
Mr. Secretary Rtn. Chung Tze Hien, Rotary Club of HK Northeast. We meet regularly at JSM.
Rtn. Teruko Akita, Rotary Club of Kawaguchi North Japan. She recently moved to HK, and she is thinking about joining our club. Very good.

Sergeant-at-Arms Simon received contributions of $560 and raffles $340 making a total of $900.

President Gary made the following announcement:

Nov. 6th: Duchess of Kent Fair at Sandy Bay. We almost have enough Rtn. Support together with Sea School, Interact, and HK Island School led by Rtn. Gary Rasmussen.

Nov. 10th: Directors' Meeting 6:30PM at President Gary's office. President emphasized again that everybody is welcomed.

Nov. 14th: Walk for Taiwan organized by our Interact Club of HKIS. The location is around the Peak. Other Interact Clubs are welcomed. For Details, please contact Rtn. Gary Rasmussen.

Nov. 18th: BBQ night at the Hong Kong Country Club at the poolside. Please sign up early. Be there or Be square. 2 Club 888 draws.

Nov. 24th: Horse Racing at the Happy Valley using Dynasty Club Box. Please sign up before Nov. 15 especially for the club badges. One of our newer Rotarian has many good tips. Be there.

Dec. 16th: Xmas dinner with our big Club 888 draw. First prize: round trip to Bali with Hotel.

District Events:

Nov. 21st: District Sports Day host by Happy Valley. Jan. 2000: Golf Day.

Presidential conference and Annual Conference. Please visit our district web site.

Rtn. Sam reported that he received donation in memory of Mrs. Wanda S. Eng of $25,000. [See photo at our website]

In addition, we received $5,000 donation from our Beijing members. Many thanks to these donors. The board will consider the distribution of this both donation.

Attendance:

Our October attendance was 73%. If you are below that %, you are pulling our average down.

100% Attendance Club since October: President Gary, PP Rex, IPP Nick, Rtn Ernie [new member], PP Tom Sheppard, IPP Nick, Rtn. Francesco, and PP John Moody [yes, he is still supporting us.] Bold face Rotarians achieved 100% attendance last year.

Exclusive Member's news: Only in this bulletin.

We will have 2-course Vietnamese lunch next week.

Birthday boy:

Belated birthday boy Rtn. John received his gifts and song while he was recording it live on tape for his 94-year-old mom. [See photo at our website.]

Acting Program Chairman Simon welcomed our speaker Ms. Geraldine Wilson. Her speech is about Samaritans. Ms. Wilson has been in HK for more than 20 years, and her business is in school uniform. But her main topic is about her organization Samaritans - Suicide prevention.

Rev. Chad Barad due to a 14-year old girl's funeral found the organization. She died of ignorance of about period. Rev. Chad thought that if he were available to provide counseling, such tragedy might have prevented.

The Samaritans major tool to prevent suicide is listening therapy. It is their strict policy that the Samaritans will not make any kind of judgment. All of the information received is strictly confidential. During the time of crisis, Samaritans will be available and befriending to their clients until the crisis is over.

The highest age group is surprisingly us: 25- 55 for both male and female. Woman does talk quite comfortably on the phone. However, man tends not to talk instead they use internet and email. Elderly is always a risk. Surprisingly, teens do not have as much risk as others. Samaritans will NOT provide advice or suggestion even when asked. Instead, they will only provide available options, not forcing any opinion. The work with newspaper in keeping suicide events with minimal exaggeration.

Most of the listeners are trained volunteers totally about 200 for HK and Kowloon. Their training is stringent. Their operation funding is mostly from Community Chest and other begging.

Rtn. John thanked our speaker noting the brave work Samaritans do. His thank you speech was one of best of this year.

Next week speaker will be Mr. R. Pearson. President adjourned the meeting with a toast to RI.